Managing and indexing content on a network with image bookmarks and digital watermarks

ABSTRACT

A method of managing content, and in particular, managing content on the Internet retrieves a web page that includes an image and detects whether the image included within the web page is embedded with a digital watermark. It generates an indicia associated with an image included in the web page that is embedded with a digital watermark. The indicia indicate to the user which images include watermarks. The watermarks may be used to convey links to related web pages or specific information about the images, such as usage rights and licensing information. Variations of this method create image bookmarks to web pages including images using thumbnails of those images. A content management system comprises a first program for retrieving web pages including images. It also includes a second program for extracting an image from a web page, creating a thumbnail of the image, and forming an image bookmark linking the thumbnail to the web page that the image has been extracted from. The thumbnails are used to create a visual index to corresponding web pages from which the images originated on the Internet. A method of visual indexing of content on a network, such as the Internet, retrieves a web page, extracts an image included on the web page, generates a thumbnail of the image, and creates a link between the thumbnail and a location of the web page from which the image has been extracted.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation in part of application Ser. No.10/112,884, filed Mar. 29, 2002, which is a continuation of applicationSer. No. 09/165,142, filed Oct. 1, 1998 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,421,070),which is a continuation in part of application Ser. No. 08/746,613,filed Nov. 12, 1996 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,122,403). This patentapplication is also a continuation in part of application Ser. No.09/972,792, filed Oct. 5, 2001, which is a continuation of Ser. No.09/612,177, filed Jul. 6, 2000 (Now U.S. Pat. No. 6,681,029), which is acontinuation of Ser. No. 08/746,613, filed Nov. 12, 1996 (now U.S. Pat.No. 6,122,403), which is a continuation in part of Ser. No. 08/649,419,filed May 16, 1996 (now U.S. Pat. No. 5,862,260), and PCT/US96/06618filed May 7, 1996 (published as WO 96/36163). The above patents andpatent applications are hereby incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to managing and indexing content, and particularlyimages, found on networks, such as web pages on the Internet.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There are numerous commercially available programs called “browsers”that facilitate accessing and displaying data. The two leadingcommercially available browsers are the “Netscape Communicator” which isdistributed by Netscape Corporation of Mountain View, Calif. and the“Internet Explorer” browser that is distributed by Microsoft corporationof Redmond, Wash.

Browsers allow one to utilize the internet to access web pages locatedat remote sites. A browser displays web pages in a window on a displaydevice. The web pages that are displayed can contain both text andimages.

Technology called stegangraphy had been developed which allows one tostore digital data in an image. Such data is frequently termed a“digital watermark”. The digital data is not visible when an imagecontaining such data is displayed with a conventional browser; however,the image can be passed through a special program which can detect andread the hidden data. Systems for storing digital data in images and forthen reading such data from the images are for example shown in U.S.Pat. No. 5,636,292 and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,748,783. Such technology isalso discussed in the “Communications of the ACM” published July 1998Vol. 41. No. 7 pages 31 to 77.

The following disclosure describes programs that work with a browser toprovide functions that are not performed by prior programs. A typicalweb page displayed by a browser contains several images. With aconventional browser, a user can not visually determine if any of theimages displayed on a web page contain a watermark, and cannot createand use image bookmarks.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One aspect of the invention is a method of managing content, and inparticular, managing content on the Internet. The method retrieves a webpage that includes an image and detects whether the image includedwithin the web page is embedded with a digital watermark. It generatesan indicia associated with an image included in the web page that isembedded with a digital watermark. The indicia indicate to the userwhich images include watermarks. The watermarks may be used to conveylinks to related web pages or specific information about the images,such as usage rights and licensing information. Variations of thismethod create image bookmarks to web pages including images usingthumbnails of those images.

Another aspect of the invention is a system for managing content. Thesystem comprises a first program for retrieving web pages includingimages. It also includes a second program for extracting an image from aweb page, creating a thumbnail of the image, and forming an imagebookmark linking the thumbnail to the web page that the image has beenextracted from. The thumbnails are used to create a visual index tocorresponding web pages from which the images originated on theInternet, for example.

Another aspect of the invention is a method of visual indexing ofcontent on a network, such as the Internet. The method retrieves a webpage, extracts an image included on the web page, generates a thumbnailof the image, and creates a link between the thumbnail and a location ofthe web page from which the image has been extracted.

One embodiment is implemented as an adjunct to a convention browserwhich displays web pages including images. In this embodiment, visualindicia is placed on images that include a digital watermark so that auser can know that the image contains hidden watermark data. By clickingon the indicia which is placed on the image, the user will be linked tothe web page identified by the watermark data hidden in the image. Inthis embodiment, such a link can be established without the web pagedesigner having to include a tag in the web page which displays theoriginal image. This embodiment also opens a separate widow depicting athumbnail of each image in a web page. If a user right clicks on one ofthe thumbnails in this window the image will be added to a list ofimages in a special image bookmark file. When a user opens the bookmarkweb page, thumbnails of all the stored images in the bookmark file aredisplayed. A user can recall the web page which originally contained theimage by clicking on the thumbnail.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a browser.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is flow diagram of the operation of the preferred embodiment

FIG. 4 is a diagram of a display screen of the preferred embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram of a display screen showing bookmarks.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of the operation of the bookmark program

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

An embodiment is implemented utilizing what is known in the art as“helper application” for the Internet Explorer 4.0 browser. The InternetExplorer 4.0 browser is commercially distributed by MicrosoftCorporation. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the commercially availableInternet Explorer 4.0 browser 10. Browser 10 provides a mechanism forreceiving and displaying data (called Web Pages) received from the WorldWide Web (which is often referred to as W W W).

The embodiment described herein is designed to operate based onwatermarks which have a particular format designed by DigimarcCorporation. Many of the commercially available programs which caninsert watermarks in images and which can detect watermarks in imagesutilize this watermark format. For example, the Digimarc format is usedby the following commercially available programs: “Adobe PhotoShop”Versions 4.0 and 5.0 and “Adobe ImageReady” Version 1.0 which aremarketed by Adobe Corporation, “CorelDRAW” Versions 7 and 8, and “CorelPHOTO-PAINT” Versions 7 and 8 which are marketed by Corel Corporation,and Micrografx Webtricity” Versions 1 and 2, “Micrografx Graphics Suite2”, and “Micrografx Picture Publisher” Versions 7 and 8 which aremarketed by Micrografx Corporation.

The base program in the Internet Explorer 4.0 browser, that is, theprogram which begins the operation of the browser 10 is IEXPLORE.EXE 11which is shown in FIG. 1. Program 11 calls the web browser controldynamic link library SHDOCVW.DLL 12. As stated in the documentation ofthe Internet Explorer provided by Microsoft SHDOCVW.DLL 12 “supplies thefunctionality associated with navigation, in-place linking, favoritesand PICS support.” SHDOCVW.DLL 12 in turn hosts or calls the MSHTML.DLL13 dynamic link library. MSHTML.DLL “performs the HTML parsing andrendering” and also “exposes the HTML document through the Dynamic HTMLObject Model” 14. The HTML Object Model 14 hosts the Active X Control14A, the Active X Engine 14B, the JAVA VM 14C and the Plug In Applet14D. The various components in browser 10 store and retrieve informationfrom URL Cache 15. The operation and function of the various componentsof the Internet Explorer browser are described in the publicly availableliterature (and on the web site) provided by Microsoft Corporation.

An embodiment adds a browser helper object 21 and two other programs 22and 23 as shown in FIG. 2. Program 22 is a conventional program designedto detect a watermark in an image. One example of such a program isshown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,636,292. Another program for detectingwatermarks is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,689,587. The browser helperobject 21 interfaces with the dynamic link library MSHTML.DLL 13 andwith the URL cache 15.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a web page being displayed in a window40 on display screen 41 by browser 10. The example shown in FIG. 4 hasfour images designated image 1, image 2, image 3 and image 4. It shouldunderstood that the number of images and the placement of the imagesvaries in each web page displayed and it is determined by the person whocreates a web page. Furthermore, text may be interspersed with theimages. The example shown in FIG. 4 is a simple example of a web pagewhich is herein used to illustrate the operation of an embodiment.

The embodiment detects which images on a web page contain a watermark.The images which contain watermarks are flagged or noted by means of anindicia which is added to the lower right hand corner of any images thatcontain watermarks. In the example shown in FIG. 4, image 3 contains awatermark and thus indicia 46 appears on the lower right hand corner ofthe image. Indicia 46 could for example be a logo which identifies aparticular company or it could be any other easily identified mark orsymbol. It could be as simple as the letters WM or it could be a smallmulticolored image. The indicia which is displayed is stored in GIF file(Graphic Interchange Format file) and referenced by HTML code (HyperTextMarkup Language code) which causes the indicia to be displayed.

The data in the watermarks (which have the previously defined format)includes a particular HTML address. In the embodiment, if a user clickson the indicia 46, a link is created and executed to a particular webpage on a particular server herein identified as“www.digimarc.com/cgi-bin”.

The program 20 also opens a separate window 42 and it places a thumbnail(i.e. a reduced version) of each image in window 42. In the exampleshown in FIG. 4, thumbnails 42A, 42B, 42C and 42D are small versions ofimages 1 to 4 respectfully.

Program 20 also creates an image or “button” 45 which contails thesymbol BM. If a user right clicks on one of the images in window 42,that image is saved as a bookmark. If at a later time a user clicks onthe BM image 45, the system displays a list of the previously savedimages 53 a to 53 h as shown in FIG. 5. When a user clicks on one of thedisplayed images 53 a to 53 h, a link is executed to the page from whichthe image originated, and thus that page is again displayed by thebrowser 10.

FIG. 3 is a block flow diagram of the operation of the browser helperobject 21 and program 22. Block 31 indicates that initially the browser10 receives data and it renders images in window 40 on the screen 41 asis normal for the operation of the browser 10. Block 32 indicates thatwhen the download operation is complete, MSHTML.DLL 13 sends a “Downloadcomplete event” and a “Document Object” to Browser helper Object 21. TheDocument Object includes the URL addresses of each of the images in thepage that is displayed. The characteristics of a Download Complete Eventand a Document Object is explained in the documentation provided byMicrosoft Corporation. Block 34 indicates that Browser Helper 21 sends arequest to MSHTML for the address in cache 15 of one of the URLaddresses which it previously received. The documentation supplied byMicrosoft corporation explains how the above operations are performed.

Block 35 indicates that when browser helper 21 receives a DownloadCompete Event from MSHTML.DLL 13, the browser helper 21 queries the“Document Object”. The images which are in the page being displayed areavailable to the browser helper 21 in the current “Document”. Thebrowser helper 21 retrieves the image data from the URL cache 15 andprocesses it as follows: The image is passed through watermark detectorprogram 22 to determine if the image contains a watermark and bookmarkprogram 23 places a thumbnail of the image in window 32.

As indicated by block 38, if no watermark is detected (and if this isnot the last image which appears in the window being displayed) theprogram flow returns to block 34 and the process repeats for anotherimage. If the image being processed is the last image in a window theprocess stops and does not begin again until browser helper 21 receivesanother “download Compete Event” signal.

If a watermark is detected by watermark detector 22, the processproceeds to block 39. As indicated by block 39, in this event helperProgram 21 calculates the position of the lower right hand corner of theimage and “inserts” a HREF and an IMG tag to the current document objectof MSHTML.DLL. In response to the HREF and IMG tag, MSHTML.DLL willdisplay an indicia such as indicia 46 in the lower right hand corner ofthe image with the watermark. The browser helper can calculate the lowerright hand corner of the image where the indicia 46 is to be insertedfrom the location data of the image. The location where the image is tobe inserted is given in the HREF command. The following is an example ofand HREF and IMG tags:

-   <a href=“http://www.digimarc.com/cgi-bin/c1.p1?4+404407+0.0+1.”-   <IMG SRC=‘ind46.gif’ STYLE=“position:absolute;left:    125;top:200;filter;alpha(opacity)”>-   </a>    -   where: ind46.gif is a GIF image of the indicia 46.

The general format of such HREF and IMG tags is conventional. Likewisethe technique for “inserting” a HREF and an IMG tag to the currentdocument object of MSHTML.DLL is known.

When watermark detector 22 determines that a particular image contains awatermark, the browser helper 21 inserts tags such as the above to theMSHTML.DLL 13 which then superimposes indicia 46 over the image beingdisplayed by the browser 10.

An Active X browser control program publicly available from MicrosoftCorporation is used to display the thumbnails in widow 42 as shown inFIG. 4. The Active X browser control program is also used to display theimage bookmarks as shown in FIG. 5.

A specific example of image HTML used to display thumbnails in window 42using an Active X browser control is given below.

<table width= 72> <tr><ahref=‘http://safari.altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/VP?START=1’title=‘http://safari.altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/VP?START=1’><fontsize=1 color=‘blue’ face=‘Verdana,Arial,Helvetica’> <Ponmouseover=“this.style.color = ‘red’”; onmouseout= “this.style.color =‘blue’”;>Corbis Picture Experience - AltaVista - BETA TEST<P></font></a></tr> </table> <table cellspacing=‘1’ cellpadding=‘1’,border=‘0’ width=‘72’> <tr>   <td rowspan=‘2’ ><ahref=‘http://safari.altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/VP?START=1’><img src=“http://safari.altavista.digital.com/Assets/coravcpe.gif”border=‘0’title=‘http://safari.altavista.digital.com/Assets/coravcpe.gif’border=‘0’ height=‘30’ width=‘70’></a> </td> {close oversize bracket}    <td></td> </tr> <tr>     <td></td > </tr> <tr>   <td rowspan=‘2’ ><ahref=‘http://safari.altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/VP?START=1’><img src=“http://safari.altavista.digital.com/Assets/coravtitle.gif”border=‘0’title=‘http://safari.altavista.digital.com/Assets/coravtitle.gif’border=‘0’ height=‘50’ width=‘70’></a> </td> {close oversize bracket}    <td></td> </tr> <tr>     <td></td> </tr> <tr>   <td rowspan=‘2’ ><ahref=‘http://safari.altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/VP?START=1’><img src=“http://safari.altavista.digital.com/Assets/corav123.gif”border=‘0’title=‘http://safari.altavista.digital.com/Assets/corav123.gif’border=‘0’ height=‘52’ width=‘37’></a> </td> {close oversize bracket}    <td></td> </tr> <tr>     <td></td> </tr> <tr> </table>

The above example includes three images. The brackets at the right handside of the above code indicate the sections of code which display eachimage. When in use, the number of images equals the number of images ona particular web page which is being displayed.

A block diagram of the program used to add images to the list of imagebookmarks is shown in FIG. 6. With reference to FIG. 4, if a user wouldlike to add one of the images 1 to 4 to a list of images that the userhas bookmarked, the user would right clicks on the thumbnail of thatimage which shown in widow 42 (block 61). As a result of the rightclick, a drop down window (not specifically shown) will appear askingfor the name the user wants to associate with the image (block 62). Itis noted that the use of drop down widows to add information isconventional and well known. When the drop down window appears, the userenters a name and the image is added to the list of bookmarks with thename entered.

Similar HTML code to that given above is used with the Active X Browsercontrol to display bookmarks as shown in FIG. 5. The following is anexample of HTML code which displays bookmarks as shown in in FIG. 5.Such HTML is conventional and many alternative sequences of HTML can beused to generate a similar page of images.

<html> <head> <title>Digimarc Watermark Explorer Bookmark</title> <bodyvlink=‘blue’ link=‘blue’> <table width= 100 align=‘center’> <tr> <td><ahref=‘http://www.cnn.com/’ name=‘Bookmark_C’><font size=1 color=‘blue’face=‘Verdana,Arial,Helvetica’><U onmouseover= “this.style.color =‘red’”; onmouseout=“this.style.color = ‘blue’”; >CNN Interactive</U></font></a></td></tr> <tr> {close oversize bracket} <td width=‘100’align=‘center’> <a href=‘http://www.cnn.com/’><img src=“http://www.cnn.com/images/1998/05/homepage/cnnin.logo.gif”alt=‘http://www.cnn.com/’ border=‘0’ height=‘52’ width=‘70’></a> </td></tr> </table> <table width= 100 align=‘center’> <tr> <td><a href=“name=‘Bookmark_M’><font size=1 color=‘blue’face=‘Verdana,Arial,Helvetica’><U onmouseover=“this.style.color =‘red’”; onmouseout=“this.style.color = ‘blue’”; >Microsoft Investor</U></font></a></td></tr> <tr> <td width=‘100’ align=‘center’> <ahref=“><img  src=“http://investor.msn.com/common/images/invlogo.gif”alt=” border=‘0’ height=‘48’ width=‘70’></a> </td> </tr> </table> <tablewidth= 100 align=‘center’> <tr> <td><a href=“ name=‘Bookmark_P’><fontsize=1 color=‘blue’ face=‘Verdana,Arial,Helvetica’><Uonmouseover=“this.style.color = ‘red’”; onmouseout=“this.style.color =‘blue’”; >PC World</U> </font></a></td></tr> <tr> {close oversizebracket} <td width=‘100’ align=‘center’> <a href=“><img src=“http://www.idg.net/channels/ie4/english/images/ idg_logo.gif”alt=” border=‘0’ height=‘52’ width=‘70’></a> </td> </tr> </table></body> </html>

The brackets to the right of the above HTML show the sections of HTMLused to display one bookmark. Naturally it should be understood that theabove is merely an example of one particular set of HTML that can beused to display a list of bookmarks. Various other sequences of code canbe used to obtain similar functions. HTML code such as that shown aboveis conventional and widely used.

Another feature that can be added to the preferred embodiment is thatwindow 42 can be used to display a visual history of the pages that havebeen viewed. That is one could include in window 42 a button that wouldallow one to scroll back through the thumbnails previously displayed inthe window.

While the invention has been showed with respect to a preferredembodiment thereof, it should be understood that various changes andmodifications can be made without departing from the spirit of theinvention. The scope of applicant's invention is defined by thefollowing claims.

1. A method of managing content, comprising: retrieving a web page thatincludes an electronic image, the web page being retrieved from anetwork of interconnected devices in which the web page is stored,detecting whether the electronic image included within the web page isembedded with a digital watermark, the detecting including processingthe electronic image to produce an electronic signal indicative of thedigital watermark, and generating an electronic indicia signal andoutputting the indicia signal on an output device, the indicia signalassociated with the electronic image included in the web page that isembedded with a digital watermark.
 2. The method of claim 1 including:displaying the electronic indicia signal along with the electronic imagethat is embedded with a digital watermark to indicate that theelectronic image includes a digital watermark.
 3. The method of claim 1including: generating electronic thumbnail images of electronic imagesfrom web pages retrieved from the network along with links associatingthe electronic thumbnail images of the electronic images tocorresponding web page locations where the electronic images are locatedon the network.
 4. The method of claim 3 wherein the electronicthumbnail images are organized into a user interface of image bookmarksto corresponding web pages.
 5. The method of claim 4 wherein the userinterface provides a navigation history of web pages visited by a user.6. The method of claim 4 including: enabling a user to add an electronicimage found on a web page to a list of image bookmarks depicted in theuser interface, and maintaining the list of image bookmarks.
 7. Themethod of claim 4 including: directing a browser to a corresponding webpage in response to a user selecting an image bookmark.
 8. A system formanaging content, comprising: a memory; a processor in communicationwith the memory and programmed to retrieve web pages including imagesfrom a network of interconnected devices, the processor programmed toextract an image from a web page, the processor programmed to create athumbnail of the image, and the processor programmed to form an imagebookmark linking the thumbnail to the web page that the image has beenextracted from.
 9. The system of claim 8 including: the processorprogrammed to detect a digital watermark in the image extracted from aweb page.
 10. The system of claim 9 wherein the processor is programmedto generate indicia for images in which digital watermarks are detected,the indicia serving to identify the images that include a digitalwatermark.
 11. The system of claim 8 wherein the processor is programmedto execute a web browser program to retrieve the web pages.
 12. Thesystem of claim 11 wherein the processor is programmed to execute codethat extracts the image from the web page, that creates the thumbnailand that forms the image bookmark, the code included with the webbrowser program.
 13. The system of claim 8 wherein the processor isprogrammed to instruct a display device to display a web page in a firstwindow and a thumbnail of an image in the web page in a second window.14. The system of claim 13 wherein the thumbnail of the image isannotated with indicia when a digital watermark is detected in theimage.
 15. The system of claim 8 wherein the processor is programmed tomaintain and display a list of thumbnails as image bookmarks linking thethumbnails to corresponding images on web pages where the thumbnailsoriginated.
 16. A method of visual indexing of content on a network, themethod comprising: using a programmed computer to perform the acts of:retrieving a web page; extracting an image included on the web page;generating a thumbnail of the image; creating a link between thethumbnail and a location of the web page from which the image has beenextracted.
 17. The method of claim 16 including: in response to arequest from a user, displaying a web page depicting thumbnails, thethumbnails each being associated with a link to a corresponding web pagein which the image from which the thumbnail has been generated islocated.
 18. The method of claim 17 wherein the web page depicting thethumbnails represents an index to images stored on the Internet.
 19. Themethod of claim 17 wherein the web page depicting the thumbnailsrepresents a history of web pages visited by a user.
 20. The method ofclaim 16 including displaying the image extracted from a web page in aseparate window from a window in which the web page is displayed, andenabling a user to create an image bookmark to the image.